John Paul II's gunman says Iran behind Pope's attempted murder in '81

Washington, Feb. 1 (ANI): The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in his new autobiography has claimed that Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had personally told him to kill the pope.

In 'They Promised Me Paradise', which was released in Italy on Thursday, Mehmet Ali Agca wrote that he was trained in Iran by Khomeini's forces after escaping from a Turkish prison.

He added that the Iranian leader himself told him to kill John Paul in the name of God, Fox News reports.

Agca shot and wounded John Paul on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square.

Minutes after being arrested, Agca said he had acted alone. Later, he suggested Bulgaria and the Soviet Union's KGB were behind the attack, but then backed away from that assertion.